An insomnia assessment includes a thorough sleep,
medical and psychiatric history3
. The sleep history can
begin with a chronological review of sleep starting
with childhood and may also include: identifying any
factors that precipitated the insomnia (and whether
these factors are still present), current life stressors,
factors currently thought to be contributing to insomnia,
a description of a typical 24-h period in terms of sleep
behaviours and schedule, how often a typical night
occurs, how a bad night differs from a good night, if
there are any identifiable weekly, monthly or seasonal
sleep patterns, what has been tried to correct the sleep
disturbance and to what extent such strategies worked